All That's Left Behind - ronance

chapter 8

Nancy's missed having friends. She didn't have very many before- it was all about growing up, about getting into college and following in her journalist idol's footsteps, then about making her own footsteps. She had Jonathan, but then she didn't. And yeah, okay, she's been with these guys for about an hour but she feels friendship. She glances back at the car and thinks they could be a group of college kids on a road trip, except for the gun slung across Billy's lap and the way Robin glares holes in the windshield.

Dustin and Lucas are obviously best friends. It's evident in their banter and their smiles. She suspects childhood friends, as they confirm for her.

"It's amazing we didn't share the same womb, really," Dustin remarks.

"Dude," says Lucas, reaching across Billy to shove Dustin. "Don't tell her that."

"What?" mocks Dustin, shoving back.

Obviously they haven't been around a girl in a while. Nancy has a suspicion that, even when they were, they were just as clumsy. They tell her they lived in Massachusetts, and are heading to Idaho where one of Lucas's relatives has a farm they're hoping to rebuild. They met Billy in Albany, where he saved their lives.

"All in a day's work," Billy jokes with a smile. He's got a smile that would have had pre-apocalypse Nancy's heart stuttering in her chest. He leans forward as if to tell her a secret. "I thought Dustin was going to shit his pants."

Lucas suppresses a chuckle, and Dustin says, looking distressed, "To be clear, I wasn't going to."

"So," Billy says, "how'd you end up with this one?" He jerks his thumb toward Robin, who is all stiff joints and tense muscle, a statue in the driver's seat. Robin doesn't say anything, but a vein is jumping in her jaw. (Billy is obviously her least favorite person at the moment, but Nancy can't guess why. He's pretty amiable. He's been civil.)

Nancy turns back to Billy. "she rescued me, too."

Is that the ghost of a smile at the corner of Robin's mouth? She can't tell. Robin's more guarded around people (and when did people stop including her?). It's clear that she'd rather be on her own than with the four of them.

Nancy's being cold, maybe. Neither of them had said anything about what happened in that little house, but now Nancy knows. She knows what Robin smells like, what Robin tastes like, what pattern Robin's heart beats when she sleeps. It's different now, like knowing someone's dirty little secrets. And yeah, she wants to touch Robin's arm and see if maybe there's something humming under her skin like there is under hers, but she's already crossed a line.

That's different, she'd said, with a set jaw. Nancy has no idea what that means.

*****

"Is Anger Issues your girlfriend?"

Nancy blinks, turns over her shoulder to frown at Billy. He's grinning. "You mean Robin?" she says, shutting her book. Her gaze drifts over Billy's head, beyond Dustin and Lucas slumped against each other in sleep, at Robin's bare shoulders in a tank top under the sun while she pulls gas out of a stray car.

"Who else has a bug up her ass?"

Nancy laughs. "she's not my girlfriend," she tells him. "And she's just...complicated."

"How long have you been with her?"

For some reason the phrasing makes Nancy's heartbeat speed up. "Less than two weeks," she answers.

Billy raises his eyebrows. "And you've already got her figured out? Good one, sweetheart."

This is the second time someone who's not Robin's called her that. The nickname hits her wrong, and she's sure he catches the way her mouth turns down. "You get to know people pretty quickly nowadays," she says, opening her book again.

"I hope so," Billy says. There's a grin in his voice that seems very out of place.